Open Archery

[Fortybox]

How well do rangers perform with open archery? Would this be a viable solution all the way to cap?

I'd like to do foraging bounties but am having trouble with training points if I was to do stalking and hiding.

[Drazaan]

It's a pretty sunny route to cap as an open archer ranger. The only hang-ups along the path that I can think of are early on in the career of the open archer ranger. This is due to: (1) the lack of a strong eye aiming ability and (2) the real possibility that your strength bonus early in life is often not optimal for open archery if you are aiming for a stat allocation that maximizes at level 100. My solution to this was I remained a THW ranger until somewhere around level 30-40 and when I did finally go open archery, I used a sighted bow to initially overcome early deficits.

Additionally, open archer rangers don't have terribly strong options against creatures that are puncture resistant. The retort to this is to hunt something that is not puncture resistant. I've generally avoided the undead due to the extra dimensions of arrow management that comes with blessed arrows. The last real concern that may be worth mentioning is plate-wearing creatures take a fair amount of time and when possible, I seek out softer targets.

All in all, it is a really enjoyable ranger build. You touch on what I find as one of most incredible aspects of being an open archer ranger: plenty of TP availability to further customize your training. It allowed me to pick up augmented chain very early on, pursue a heavy spell research agenda, and develop tertiary skills that while they haven't changed the core of playing Gemstone, have provided me with little incentives on the long path towards cap.

[Peppwyn]

I actually stopped playing my open archer ranger at 50 because i found it super boring killing evrhying with one shot and not having a variety of things to do. Maybe that's what you're looking for? I second the str bonus being a problem but there are lots of strength enhansives out there and wizard strength is easily embeddable.

[Maerit]

How well do rangers perform with open archery? Would this be a viable solution all the way to cap?

I'd like to do foraging bounties but am having trouble with training points if I was to do stalking and hiding.

Another question though, how much armor training are you doing with your sniper build? A lot of rangers go crazy on armor training early for sniping builds when really you don't have to have that much armor (slightly riskier) because you're primarily in stealth. Sacrificing say Brig to down grade to Doubles is a viable option early on, and offers significant TPs for survival training. Just a thought.

[Fortybox]

So I'm under 20. I've been playing around and it appears I can do this:

8 ranks armor use
2x ranged
.5 CM
1x ambush
1x PF
1x dodge
1x harness
1x spells
2x S&H
2x perception
1x first aid
1x survival


Thoughts?

[BriarFox]

That'll work. FA and survival are optional. Grab some Shadow Mastery and use 608.

[Taernath]

What's the CM for, disarm?

[Fortybox]

What's the CM for, disarm?

I assumed I would need the CMAN points.

[Fortybox]

Thoughts on this open archer build?

(at level 14), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 70 15
Combat Maneuvers...................| 70 15
Ranged Weapons.....................| 120 30
Ambush.............................| 70 15
Physical Fitness...................| 70 15
Dodging............................| 70 15
Harness Power......................| 70 15
Survival...........................| 120 30
Perception.........................| 120 30
Climbing...........................| 35 7
Swimming...........................| 35 7
First Aid..........................| 70 15

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 3

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 12

[Rhovan]

If firing from the open, ambush only gives you a little DS until you move beyond 40 ranks. I'd recommend putting points from ambush into armor training at this point and getting into brigandine. After the needed 30 ranks in armor use, put all those points into ambush to catch up.

Some people will also say to skip ambush until cap or so, but I always like a higher AS and doubled all the way.

[megadeth]

I was going to say, drop the CM as Armor Use is more important. Heavier armor is a plus for open ranged.